


Annabeth, Makeup, Fireworks, and Other Miscellaneous

by Silvertongue90



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Comedy, Demigods Fatal Flaws, F/M, Family Fluff, Friendship, Funny, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-07 00:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18861871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvertongue90/pseuds/Silvertongue90
Summary: What happens when a certain daughter of Aphrodite convinces Annabeth to wear makeup? What will Percy's reaction be? Used to be a one shot until I decided to put all of my Percy Jackson one shots into a single compilation.





	1. Annabeth, Makeup, and Fireworks

"No!" Annabeth shouted. "I won't subject myself to being treated like a Barbie doll."

Silena rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Percy will think you're a knockout," the daughter of Aphrodite tried to tempt her. "I'll bet he'll ask you to the fireworks tonight."

Annabeth glared at Silena. "I don't care what Percy thinks."

Secretly, she wondered if Percy would ask her to the fireworks if she changed her appearance. She stared hard at the other girl in front of her critically, taking in the tastefully designed dress and the gobs of makeup Silena wore that somehow enhanced her already beautiful features.

Annabeth mentally shook her head. Hades would freeze over before she allowed anyone to come close to her with a compact. She kept repeating to herself that she didn't care what Percy thought.

Silena tried a different tactic. "You're very beautiful, Annabeth, and makeup will only highlight your features, I promise."

"I don't care," Annabeth remained persistently stubborn.

Silena sighed to herself. Now was the time to use her secret weapon, she sent a quick prayer to her mother that they wouldn't ruin everything.

While Annabeth was distracted with waving to a fellow camper, she gave Travis and Connor the signal they'd been waiting for while goofing around near their cabin. Silena knew Annabeth's fatal flaw was pride and she was going to use her flaw against her to get Annabeth to wear makeup. Maybe even a new set of clothes.

The Stoll brothers had readily agreed to help the daughter of Aphrodite for the price of a small amount of permanent makeup. While the makeup wasn't actually permanent it did take a very long time to get off. Silena shuddered to think of such a thing in the hands of Travis and Connor, but desperate times calls for desperate measures.

The dark haired teenager surreptitiously watched as they bounded over to the two girls.

"What's up?" Connor asked.

"The sky," Annabeth replied at the same time Silena answered, "Annabeth won't let me put makeup on her," she pouted delicately. Sherman from Ares cabin passed by them on his way to the Arena for his sword fighting class and fainted at the sight of her. Silena frowned to herself and made a mental note to stop pouting since it seemed to have an unusual affect on some guys.

Travis winked at his brother conspiratorially. "Then she probably wouldn't want to know what we overheard Percy saying to Grover." They started to walk away when Annabeth stopped them.

"What did Percy say?" she tried to act casual and uninterested. To Silena's ears she sounded like she was one step away from punching someone in the face. The daughter of Aphrodite surreptitiously moved farther away until the Stoll brothers were between her and Annabeth.

"What'll you give us to tell you?" Connor grinned.

"I won't bribe the Apollo kids to curse the Hermes cabin with bad haiku for a day," Annabeth suggested menacingly.

"Fair enough," Travis hurriedly jumped in before Connor could protest. He'd been on the receiving end of the haiku curse before and for some reason he had only been able wax poetry in Japanese. Asking to be excused from Greek lessons to go to the bathroom had been a nightmare. "He told Grover he wishes you'd wear makeup sometimes."

"You made that up!" Annabeth accused.

Silena rolled her eyes again. She should have made them practice what to say because there was no way Annabeth would ever believe that.

"Honest!" Connor said. "We totally heard him say that." He shoved his brother on the shoulder, smirking. "Tell her what we told Percy."

Travis shook his head and grinned. "Nah, she'd get mad at us."

Annabeth frowned suspiciously. "And why would I get mad at you two?" Her stare could have made grown men cry.

"Because—" Travis clamped his hand over his brother's mouth.

"Tell me!" Annabeth demanded.

Travis sighed dramatically and removed his hand.

"We told him you didn't have the guts to wear makeup," Connor blurted out.

Silena groaned and clapped her slender hand to her forehead. "All right, you can go now." She started to shoo them away, seething at their pathetic attempts to wound Annabeth's pride.

"Wait!" Annabeth stopped her. "What did Percy say after that?"

Travis shrugged. "He said, 'I guess you're right'."

Annabeth's hands clenched into fists. "I have the guts to wear makeup," she snarled. "I just think it's a waste of valuable time."

"Right," Conner grinned. "You don't have to justify yourself to us— "

"— we're on your side," Travis finished.

"I don't need to wear makeup!"

The Stoll brothers held up their hands simultaneously. "It's not our fault everyone thinks you're too scared to put on a little makeup," Travis replied.

"Everyone?" Annabeth turned to give Silena a hard look.

"Well," Silena seemed to choose her words with care. "Why else would you refuse to let me put some on you?"

"Some friend you are," Annabeth scowled. "I'll show you. I'll show Percy and all of you that I'm not scared. Come on Silena." With that Annabeth purposely marched toward the Aphrodite cabin.

"You two are geniuses!" Silena squealed excitedly. "At first I didn't think it was going to work, but—wow!"

"Of course we're geniuses," Travis held out his hand. "Our payment?"

Silena handed him a medium sized makeup case and planted a kiss on their cheeks, smearing red lipstick on them. For a moment they looked slightly dazed, then hurriedly wiped the lip print off.

"Ah, gross!"

"Yuck!"

Silena laughed at them and dashed off to catch up with Annabeth, leaving Travis and Connor to open the makeup case and grin evilly at each other.

_Four hours later:_

"I feel ridiculous," Annabeth self-consciously tugged on her new way-too-short shorts.

"You look gorgeous!" Silena gushed.

"I look like a flamingo," Annabeth touched her pink spaghetti shoulder strap blouse, thinking that Hades must have indeed frozen over for her to look this silly.

"Percy will love the new look," Silena reminded her.

Annabeth made a face at her reflection. She hardly recognized the girl grimacing back. Silena had curled her hair, piling it high on top of her head like a bird's nest, leaving some curls around her ears and—did Silena call that a little makeup? It looked like tons to her. Leave it to a daughter of Aphrodite to not know what only a little bit of makeup meant.

"I've changed my mind," Annabeth said.

She heard Silena's siblings snickering at her and chose to ignore them in favor of edging toward the bathroom to wash her face before anyone else saw how absurd she looked.

"Nope," Silena steered her away from the bathroom. "I didn't go through all that trouble for you to wash off my masterpiece. Besides, you only have an hour until the fireworks start." She gave her a shove toward the door. "Go find Percy."

"It would have been simpler if we had used a love spell," Drew said condescendingly. Silena shot her a glare and hustled the daughter of Athena out of the cabin.

Annabeth took in a deep breath, enjoying the fresh aroma of strawberries wafting from the fields. The mixture of perfume smells in there had been giving her a headache. She glanced over at her cabin wondering if she could make it before anyone noticed her.

"Don't even think about it," Silena had a firm grip on her arm. "Trust me, you look beautiful."

"I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb," Annabeth muttered.

Jake Mason from Cabin 11 happened to be walking by at that moment and glanced at her. "Hey Annabeth!"

"Hey," she muttered, relieved he hadn't noticed anything different about her. Then as if realizing what he was seeing, Jake stopped in his tracks and stared at her. His mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

Annabeth felt her face heating up. "What are you staring at?"

"Um, nothing," he managed to squeak out and hurried away, turning to look back at her with a wide eyed expression and collided into a tree. A dryad melted out of the trunk and proceeded to give the confused demigod a severe dressing down.

Silena giggled.

"Oh gods! This is humiliating."

"Almost there," Silena wrapped her arm around Annabeth's waist.

They were headed toward the Arena where Percy spent most of his free time practicing his sword fighting skills. They found him with Michael Yew from Apollo cabin. Michael held his sword up in front of him like he was afraid it would turn into a snake and bite him, so Percy probably wasn't getting much practice done.

"Keep your sword up," Percy instructed.

"I don't want to do this anymore," Michael complained. "Can't we practice archery or something?"

Percy looked like he was having difficulty controlling his temper. "Dude, I need the practice and so do you." He swung Riptide at Michael and the boy shrieked, dropping his sword on the ground.

"I give up," he said holding his hands in a time-out gesture.

"Michael!"

Silena disappeared as Annabeth nervously walked over to the two boys. "Hi," she said tentatively.

Percy and Michael stopped and stared opened mouthed at her. She glared at Michael and he got the hint. "Uh, see you later, Percy." He glanced between them at Percy's guppy impersonation and Annabeth's glower, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "So, yeah, I'll just go." He took off, not once glancing back.

"Shut your mouth, Seaweed Brain, before you attract flies."

Percy closed his mouth, though his eyes were still bugged out. "Annabeth?"

"Who else would it be?" she asked scornfully, her face getting redder by the second.

Percy blinked several times. "Are you— you're wearing makeup and a pink shirt." He rubbed his eyes like he thought he was dreaming.

"Yes," she said shortly. Percy continued to stare uncomprehendingly and she cleared her throat nervously, tugging on her shorts before pulling out her sword. "Are we going to stand here all day or are we going to fight?"

Too stunned to say anything, Percy held up Riptide and Annabeth swung her sword at him. She disarmed him in ten seconds.

"What's the matter with you? I haven't beaten you this fast since the first time we fought together." Annabeth was seriously regretting letting Silena talk her into changing her appearance.

Percy shook his head slowly, still unable to talk, which was unlike him. If this were a normal day he would have laughed and said he'd surrendered on purpose. Finally, he broke his silence. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Annabeth shoved her sword hard into the ground. "I thought you wanted me to look like this," she ground out, wishing she could punch something.

Percy blinked again. "I don't know where you heard that from."

"You mean I am wearing this stupid outfit for nothing?"

Percy blushed and scuffed the dirt with his shoe. "You look hot. It's just not you," he gestured to her entire body. "You look like an Aphrodite wannabe."

They stared at each other for several moments, then Annabeth laughed and Percy gave her a puzzled smile. "I'm going to kill Travis and Connor, maybe even Silena while I'm at it."

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Chiron might think it matters when some of the campers go missing," Percy joked.

They heard a girl laugh and turned to see a couple heading toward the beach to watch the fireworks in a half hour. Annabeth glanced back at Percy. He was running his fingers through his hair, messing it up and looking extremely uncomfortable.

"What?"

"So, um…want to go to the fireworks with me?" He made eye contact with her and blushed again.

Annabeth smiled. "Sure Seaweed Brain, let me change my clothes and wash this stuff off first."

"Cool, I'll meet you there."

Annabeth ran to her cabin, scrubbed her face and soaked her hair to get the curls out, then tossed on some jeans and a t-shirt. She stood in front of the mirror and smiled, feeling much more like herself.

At the beach she found Percy sitting on a blanket with Grover and sat down in between them glumly. So, much for it being a date. "Hey Grover," she tried to sound cheerful.

Grover chewed on a Diet Coke can and flashed her a toothy smile. "What's this I hear about you wearing makeup and pink clothes?"

Annabeth glared at Percy and he held up his hands. "I didn't tell him."

"I heard it from a dryad," Grover said casually. "Earlier today, Jake Mason walked into her tree and babbled something about seeing you with makeup and a pink shirt. She sent him to the infirmary to have his head checked out."

"You can't believe everything you hear," Annabeth said disdainfully. "Imagine me wearing something like that."

Grover shrugged and bit into another can.

Percy looked at her out of the corner of his eye and Annabeth sent him a death stare, warning him to keep his mouth shut. "I don't know," he ignored her message. "I think I could imagine it."

"I can't," Grover snorted. "That would be something to see though. If we were allowed to use the internet around here I would post a picture to facespace."

Annabeth wanted to ring Percy's neck. "It's facebook," she growled, keeping her eyes focused on Percy.

Grover shrugged again and looked up at the sky, thinking they should be starting any second.

Percy grinned at her before turning his attention upward as the first firework was released and burst into a kaleidoscope of color in the shape of Hercules fighting the Nemean Lion. Around them, campers shouted excitedly and clapped.

Annabeth leaned back to get comfortable and watch the show. She promised herself that no one would ever be able to convince her to wear makeup again. And she really needed to work on her fatal flaw. It always got her into trouble.


	2. Leo and the Boat In the Flames

Today was the first day of Kindergarten for five year-old Leo Valdez.

He'd made new friends and had a great time drawing pictures. His teacher had exclaimed over them and said they were the best she'd ever seen in her class, making Leo's little heart swell with pride.

He couldn't wait for his mommy to pick him up after school so he could show her his drawings.

Leo was a little disappointed when he saw that his strange babysitter, Tía Callida, stood waiting for him as school let out that afternoon. "Where's mommy?" he asked in his sweet child voice.

"She is working, my Little Hero," came the reply. "Let us have a picnic today, it is lovely outside."

Tía Callida never asked what he wanted to do. She always told him what to do.

There were some benches behind Leo's apartment complex and they sat down at one. Sandwiches suddenly appeared on the table, but Leo thought nothing of it. Strange things always happened around his babysitter and he had come to expect them.

Tía Callida handed Leo some crayons and a pad of paper when he finished eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Draw something for me, my Little Hero. Pour your entire soul and flames into this drawing and you will see something wonderous, something you will build when you are grown that will help me."

Leo remembered the boat he had seen in the fire when Tía Callida put him to bed in a flaming cradle that had appeared in the wall when he was two years-old.

He could remember each careful detail as if it were etched permanently into his brain by the fire. So as his babysitter talked of things he did not understand, Leo drew the boat; working with care on the colorful sails, oars, and masthead. He poured his entire soul into the drawing as Tía Callida had told him to.

He was about to show his picture to her when he remembered his teacher telling him to always sign his name after he drew something that way everyone would know he had drawn it.

He was just pressing the crayon down on the paper again to write the letter L when a strong gust of wind blew past him and the paper slipped from his chubby fingers. Before he could react, the wind carried the picture of the boat high up into the Pecan tree next to them, then blew farther away until it was out of sight.

Leo blinked away the tears.

He wanted to bury his head in his arms and cry; however, he had learned a long time ago to never cry in front of Tía Callida. She would only scold him and tell him little heroes never shed tears.

Leo inhaled sharply as the wet stuff threatened to pool out of his eyes anyway. He had worked so hard on that picture and was sure his mommy would have been proud of him.

His babysitter clucked in disappointment. "It is not time yet, Little Hero. Someday you will have your quest and will find your destiny. When that happens your hard journey will finally make sense. First; however, you must face many sorrows. I do regret that, but heroes cannot be shaped any other way. Now make me a fire, eh? Warm my old bones."

Leo obliged her. His hands caught on fire and he held them out to her.

Tía Callida cackled like a wicked witch. "Feed the fire, my Little Hero," she whispered softly. "Do you not feel how alive you are when you feed the flames? Learn them well for they are your friend and the source that will help you in your coming quest."

With that she was gone and Leo sat at the table by himself.

He climbed onto the picnic table and set the paper and crayons on fire, watching with child like fascination as the crayons melted, creating an unusual color as they blended together. He placed his flaming hands on the surface of the table and watched as the fire burned his handprints into it.

That was how his mother found him a several minutes later.

She shrieked and snatched him off the table, extinguishing the fire with her shoe. "Leo! You must be careful!" She brought him into the house and kept hugging him tightly as if afraid something terrible was going to come and take him away from her.


	3. What The Stars Are Like

Tristan McLean, famous actor whom many young and older women would give their right arm to meet, needed a break from the Hollywood scene and he knew of only one place in the world that was safe from paparazzi.

He had to go back to his roots.

Tristan had his secretary, Jane, make the proper preparations for him to take off work for a couple of days and loaded himself and his daughter into the rented limousine to get to his private jet.

Piper was excited. She never spent as much time with her father as she would like and enjoyed every minute alone she could get with him. She chatted excitedly the whole drive and asking him of their plans.

Jane waited at the airport to send her boss off and make sure he had everything he would need. It would be an inconvenience if he forgot anything and she would have to ship it to him later. When she saw his troublesome daughter walking next to him, she curled her lip in contempt. That little girl was trouble. She had met many children of famous actors and they were always the same. Acting out, behaving rudely, and generally thinking that the world was their play ground and they could do whatever they wanted without suffering the consequences.

As Tristan and his daughter approached her, she glared at Piper, trying to convey a warning through her eyes.

Piper made a face at Jane when her father wasn't looking. That woman enjoyed getting her in trouble.

"I hope you have a nice mini vacation," Jane said cordially. She shot Piper a glance that seemed to say she doubted his vacation would be nice with his daughter tagging along.

"Thank you, Jane," Tristan said politely. "Give yourself a little vacation too."

Jane smiled brightly. "Why thank you, Mr. McLean, but I have too much work to go over. We have that new movie deal coming up in a week and I have to make sure everything runs smoothly."

"You work too hard, you deserve a little time off."

Piper rolled her eyes behind her father's back. Jane saw it and her jaw tightened.

"I enjoy my work and don't need any time off," the words came out harsher than she intended and when she realized this her features smoothed. "I'll let you two board now, have fun!"

Piper brushed past the secretary and excitedly boarded the plane ahead of her father as he gave Jane some last minute instructions. She walked down the aisle, greeting the flight attendants and found a seat in the back.

"Put your seatbelt on," Tristan told her as he sat across from Piper. She nodded and fastened her seatbelt. They waited several minutes before the pilot came on the intercom and told them they had gorgeous weather and he expected them to arrive at their destination in a few hours. Piper stared out the window as the plane moved. Soon they were lifting off and she took her seatbelt off.

The flight attendant came back and offered them some drinks and a snack. Tristan took a glass of wine and waved away the finger foods. Piper opened a can of soda, which her father insisted be poured into a glass and took a some carrots and celery.

They made slightly awkward small talk since Piper had pretty much asked him everything she wanted to know on the drive there. Tristan mostly asking about Piper's new school and if she liked it. She lied and made everything sound wonderful. She even invented two girls who were supposedly her best friends.

Her father believed her, of course. He never suspected that Piper lied because she knew that was what he wanted to hear. Soon he fell asleep after telling her he had had an exhausting week.

When the plane landed, Tristan drove the car they had waiting for him to his dad's cabin. The place where he had grown up as he often told Piper. Sometimes he would talk of his intentions to sell it, but hadn't done so yet. Instead, they used it as a place to get away from the city and noise.

It was dusk when they reached the cabin. A few stars twinkled on the horizon.

"Let's sleep outdoors tonight," he suggested.

"Okay," Piper readily agreed.

She helped him bring out the sleeping bags and pillows, laying them on the ground. They never bothered with setting up a tent, preferring to look up at the stars as they slept. They ate sandwiches wrapped in gold paper, which Piper detested with all her heart because it ruined the fantasy that they were a normal father and daughter camping out for the weekend. Who had a well paid chef make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their daughter? It was ridiculous. Piper could have made the sandwiches.

They laid down after they finished eating and Piper sighed happily.

She hadn't been this content in a long time. She breathed in the cool air, feeling her lungs expand as she held in the chilly air. Then she exhaled and watched her breath come out in a smoky fog.

Piper gazed up at the stars and was awed by their numbers and beauty. In the city she considered herself lucky if she saw three or four stars in the sky. Out here she could see the Milky Way.

Piper glanced at her dad as he laid on the ground next to her, hands under his head. He too gazed at the stars in wonder. As if feeling her eyes on him, he turned his head and smiled. ""Beautiful, eh, Pipes?"

Piper smiled and nodded. "Yes, very beautiful."

"Have I ever told you the old Cherokee legend about the stars your Grandpa Tom used to tell me?"

She shook her head and relaxed, eager to hear another story. Tristan gathered his thoughts, then began in a deep story telling voice taught to him by his father.

_"Some say the stars are balls of light, others believed them to be human at one time, but our people say they are creatures covered in luminous fur._

_One night, on a night much like this, a hunting party camped in the mountains in hopes that game would be better there than in the valley where they lived._

_In the distance, they noticed two bright lights, like stars, moving along a ridge. They wondered at the strange lights and watched until they were gone. The next night they saw the bright lights yet again, moving along the ridge and finally satisfied their curiosity by going to the ridge to find the lights the next morning._

_What they found were two very large and strange creatures that they had never seen before. Their round bodies were covered with fine dark fur. When a breeze blew, sparks shot out of the thick hide._

_The hunters carried these strange creatures back to their camp and kept them there for several days. They noticed these creatures shone like stars every night, but in the morning their fur dulled and did not glow._

_By the seventh night, the hunters made preparations to return home in the morning and laid themselves down to sleep one more night in the mountain. Just as they had settled in the creatures glowed brighter than ever before and rose up from the ground. Upwards they flew into the night sky until they were higher than the trees. The hunters sat watching in awe. Soon, two new points of lights could be seen in the sky and the hunters knew then that those creatures were stars._

_When they left the mountains for their homes the next morning they told their families about the stars. The story has been passed down from parent to child since, that way we will never forget what the stars really are."_

There was a long silence between Piper and Tristan as she mulled the story over. It was a beautiful tale, but was it true? "Do you believe the story is real, Dad?"

Tristan glanced over at his daughter, then turned to look at the stars again. "Your Grandpa Tom believed it," he laughed softly. "It's just a story, Pipes, a legend." He turned his head to look at her again. "Humans feel the need to make up stories in order to explain the universe around them. They need a reason to live, something to hold onto that will explain to them how everything works."

Piper frowned in thought. "If you don't believe in the stories, then what do you hold onto? What is your reason for living?"

Tristan smiled and reached over to touch her cheek. "You're my reason for living, Pipes. You are what holds me to this earth."

Piper grinned. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Pipes."

Father and daughter returned their gaze to the stars.

Piper wondered where her mother was at this moment and if she were thinking about them right now. Did she believe in the Cherokee legends? A cool breeze touched Piper's face and she imagined it was her mother's fingers caressing her. For a second she thought she could hear her mother's voice being carried in the wind. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.

Unknown to either of them, a slim figure in a satiny pink dress, watched them and smiled. She had Aeolus send a gentle breeze over her beloved daughter since that was the only way she could touch her right now. "Someday, my little Piper," she whispered into the breeze. "Someday we will meet face to face. First you must face many hardships. In the end, everything will be all right."


End file.
